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Thyroid drug in short supply

By jeremyc | March 3, 2010

A shortage of thyroid medicines that contain powdered pig thyroid has frustrated patients, physicians and pharmacists.

Patients for decades have used the medicines, distributed under names such as Armour Thyroid and Nature-throid.

Over the past few months, Armour Thyroid has been “available to us for a while, and then it goes away,” said Kris Shubert, a pharmacist at Kohll’s in Omaha. “So it’s kind of on again, off again.”

He said he encounters about 10 patients a day who want the pig thyroid product.

Dr. Patricia Ryan, an Omaha family physician, said that at one point she had to order Nature-throid from an Arizona pharmacy. Most of the time, she said, she can get it from Kohll’s or Kubat Pharmacy.

It is unclear what has caused the shortage.

A spokesman for New York-based Forest Laboratories said in an e-mail this week that a supplier shortage of the Armour powder “has been resolved.” The spokesman, Frank Murdolo, suggested that the supply “is improving so that patients may have their prescriptions filled without delay.”

Shubert said he received a fairly large shipment of Nature-throid early this week. Nature-throid is similar to Armour Thyroid but is made by a different manufacturer.

Although Armour Thyroid and Nature-throid have only a small share of the market — estimated at from less than 5 percent to 15 percent — that still would be hundreds of thousands of patients.

The medications are among several drugs used for hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid produces low levels of hormones. That can lead to weight gain, lethargy, depression, constipation, dry skin and other symptoms.

Among the most widely used hypothyroid drugs are Synthroid and Levoxyl, which are synthetic hormones as opposed to pig thyroid medicines.

The latter drugs have fallen from favor with some endocrinologists, or physicians who specialize in thyroid and other conditions, because it’s harder to control their potency than synthetic medicines.

“It’s just subject to more variability in potency,” said Mary Ross, assistant director of the department of pharmaceutical care at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Her institution, in fact, doesn’t stock the medicines that use pig thyroid.

But the shortage has caused concern among others.

“It’s been quite a headache, actually,” said Jessica Karas, a pharmacist for Kubat.

Ryan said she has patients who feel better on Armour Thyroid or Nature-throid and show no problems tolerating the medicine when their blood is tested.

“I like it because, overall, my patients feel good on it,” Ryan said.

Grace Ford of Bellevue said she tried Synthroid and felt less tired. But when she started taking Armour Thyroid about a year ago, she said, she felt much better.

“It was just amazing,” Ford, 60, said. “I felt like I was normal again.”

There have been several days during which she had to take half a dose while waiting for her Armour prescription, she said. Otherwise, she has been able to obtain it.

The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists estimates that 27 million Americans have thyroid diseases, the majority of whom suffer with hypothyroidism.

Topics: | Thyroid |

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